What does it mean?
To steal money, fraudsters create a fake profile on a dating app or site or on social media and start a fake romantic relationship with their victim. Scammers might be eager to declare love, propose marriage, and set up in-person meetings, but none of these will ever take place. They’ll eventually ask for money to help them in different situations – to help a relative, pay fees for sending a parcel or send funds so that they can come and meet you.
What to look out for?
- There is no information about the person available in public sources.
- They immediately express their love for you.
- The person seems flawless, especially in photographs.
- The person is always on the move or far from you.
- The fraudster tries to manipulate you emotionally so that you feel obliged to send the asked funds.
- When requesting financial assistance or discussing investments, the payments will always have to be made to a relative, friend or business partner, because there are issues with the person’s own account.
- You are insisted to share your personal data.
What’s an example?
Marie signed up for an online dating service and was contacted by Bob, who claimed to be an American officer stationed in Iraq. They seemed to get along well, messaged each other for quite some time and eventually began planning a road trip in Europe. Bob told Marie that he would transfer 5,000 euros to her to cover the trip costs. He e‑mailed her the transaction statement and told her that the money would reach her with a slight delay as his bank was processing transactions slowly. The next day, Bob suddenly asked Marie to transfer 4,000 euros back to him because he needed to loan it to a friend who was in dire need. Marie transferred the money to him while waiting for his payment to arrive, but it never did. Marie contacted her bank, and it turned out that Bob’s statement had been fake. On top of losing her money, Marie never heard from him again.